Qatar TV: An International Network on the Cutting Edge

From arts and technology to education and entertainment, Qatar TV produces a wide range of programming. In order to further its position as one of the leading Arabic channels in the Middle East, Qatar TV needs to operate efficiently, manage and maximize the value of its media assets, and produce the highest-quality content. That’s why Qatar TV decided to implement a complete end-to-end Avid workflow (built upon the Avid MediaCentral Platform and utilizing technology based on the Avid Everywhere strategic vision).

When Qatar TV built a new newsroom studio and broadcasting complex at its Doha headquarters, the Avid Professional Services team worked to design, implement, and install a full complement of media solutions—including video editing, newsroom management, and audio post production—to meet the broadcaster’s unique needs. “The end-to-end workflow designed by the Avid Professional Services team, in cooperation with our team, optimized our media cycle of acquisition, production, distribution, and archiving,” says Mohamad Fares, Head of Broadcast Technology at Qatar TV.

The end-to-end workflow designed by the Avid Professional Services team, in cooperation with our team, optimized our media cycle of acquisition, production, distribution, and archiving.

Mohamad Fares, Qatar TV.

At the heart of the system

Qatar TV generates a massive amount of content, which makes managing and archiving media a key challenge. Interplay | MAM provides Qatar TV with a comprehensive and intelligent solution for media asset management, enabling production teams to store, access, and share content quickly and efficiently. “We can easily exchange assets between our production and our archive system and if changes are needed we can even apply them with no downtime while the system is running,” Fares explains.

By combining Interplay | MAM with Interplay | Production, Qatar TV was able to streamline the production workflow and enhance collaboration, enabling its staff to handle the extraordinary volume and diversity of content the station generates.

“We have become more collaborative and efficient than ever before, meeting our business and technological challenges. It is an operational workflow a broadcaster can only wish for,” says Fares.

World-class workflows

Starting with the ingest process, the production team ingests media from both tape and live feeds to six AirSpeed 5000 servers set to record directly into an ISIS shared storage system. Four Media Composer editing stations are used to immediately edit material. Assets are then automatically checked into Interplay | Production and stored on 10 ISIS | 7000 engines, which are primarily used for on-line production and news storage. An additional two ISIS | 2000 nearline storage engines are available to park an additional 7000 hours of material during the production process.

Creating stories wherever they are happening

Producers and journalists only need a browser and network connection to gain access to media assets through the web-based MediaCentral | UX clients, which enables contributors to work wherever stories are happening. With 15 MediaCentral | UX clients, Qatar TV now employs a tightly integrated workflow between script editing and video editing. This is especially valuable for supporting Qatar TV’s diversity in news and other programming.

The editing process starts with journalists using MediaCentral | UX to write stories in iNEWS while they browse and select video on ISIS. The video selections with added audio are then sent to one of five Media Composer | Nitris DX suites for finishing. For playback, iNEWS allows the producer to send scripts to a teleprompter, control the rundown order of the news program, and dynamically update of the story order for video and graphics.

The future of mixing

Qatar TV uses a digital dubbing suite with Pro Tools | HDX and a 24-channel ICON D-Command digital control surface. Featuring tight integration with Pro Tools, D-Command allows the mixer to gain mix precision with touch-sensitive encoders and faders. Completed video sequences with audio are transferred to Interplay| Production for dubbing, mixed down in Pro Tools, and written back to the original story tracks in ISIS. Qatar TV also uses anS5 Fusion with a powerful and expandable DSP engine for standalone operation and to record and mix EUCON-enabled DAW projects.

An operation rivaling broadcast operations in any market

Today, Qatar TV has an operation capable of rivaling broadcast operations in any media market. “Qatar TV further emphasized and strengthened its position as one of the top leading Arabic channels in the Middle East and on an international level,” says Samer Younies, Consultant Engineer at Qatar TV. “Avid delivered the integrated media enterprise solution that is needed to be highly competitive, and easily implement new projects.”

“Avid delivered the integrated media enterprise solution that is needed to be highly competitive, and easily implement new projects.” —Samer Younies, Qatar TV

Thanks to this open and integrated environment of industry-leading solutions, Avid not only enabled Qatar TV to meet its go-to-air deadline, but also to join the ranks of the world’s top entertainment and news networks.